Water skis, wake boards, and other water sporting boards generally require a binding that releasably attaches the user to the water sports board. Typically, a user rides a wake board while being towed behind a boat or jet ski. The wake board resembles a surf board but, unlike a surf board, the wake board includes bindings that attach the feet of a rider onto the top surface of the wake board.
One challenge associated with bindings for wake boards and water skis is that the binding must securely hold the rider's foot in contact with the wake board during rigorous use and during relatively benign falls, but must be flexible enough to allow release of the rider upon a sufficiently violent fall. Prior art bindings addressed these problems in a number of ways. For example, some water sports bindings are designed primarily of an elastic material that is stretchable to fit and grip many different foot sizes, but is sufficiently stretchable to release the foot upon a sufficiently dynamic fall. These designs are often uncomfortable, however, because the stretchable material is tensioned around the entire foot to hold the rider in place. An example of a prior art wake board binding having this construction can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,624,291 to McClaskey. The wake board binding in McClaskey includes two strips that are attached at the top of the wake board on opposite sides of a heel of a rider. The strips extend upward around the instep of the rider and are attached by hook-and-loop material. Attachment of the two strips binds the rider's foot to the upper surface of the wake board and maintains the rider's foot against the upper surface.
Another type of water ski or wake board binding is formed primarily of a semirigid material. For example, the two patents to Uren et al. (U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,181,332 and 5,334,065) disclose a water ski boot and binding including rigid side panels or cowls, rigid heel supports, and straps mounted over the instep of a rider's foot. A rigid cuff extends around the ankle of the rider that is made as a monolithic tube of stiff, semirigid, or substantially rigid plastic material. A problem with this design is that it does not permit release of the rider's foot, but instead, the boot releases from the ski upon a fall.
In yet another type of water sports binding, a releasable boot is worn by the user, wherein the boot is attachable to the binding. An example of this type of binding is found in U.S. Pat. No. 6,855,023 to Berger et al, wherein a coupling is attached to the sole of the boot, the coupling being adapted to mate with a second coupling attached to a lower attachment plate. These bindings require the user to wear relatively heavy and uncomfortable boots in the water and have not gained wide acceptance.
All of the prior art water sports bindings are difficult or impossible to engage while in the water, so if a user falls and releases from the binding, the user may have to return to shore or onto the pulling watercraft to re-engage the binding to continue the sport. There remains a need for water sports bindings that provide the functional benefits of a binding and that also are relatively easy to engage while in the water.